Moles have long been an undesirable problem for lawn owners, golf courses, gardeners and others attempting to protect their land from surface damage. A mole's front two claws are powerful and designed for digging tunnels. A mole typically digs in total darkness; its nose aids in the digging process, sensing the location of soil and moving the soil for easier removal. Mole tunnels create an undesirable appearance and contour on grass landscapes. A family of moles can do considerable damage to a lawn by burrowing just under the ground's surface, creating elevations, bumps and unsightly appearance to the property. Typically, tunnels dug by moles cause a 1.5-2.5 inch elevation of ground surface, disrupting the normal contour of the ground surface.
In addition, the burrowing and burrows separate surface plants such as grass from their roots, causing an eventual death of the surface plants and producing unsightly, meandering patterns of dead grass on a grass surface landscape if repair to the landscape is not effected quickly. Moles use the tunnels as a food source, devouring worms, bugs, beetles, insects roots and such; their continued activity in the area furthers damage to surface plants and causes additional expense to repair.
Moles are difficult to control. Many solutions have been attempted, with only mixed results: electronic devices, poisons, traps with knives to kill moles in their tunnels, pouring bleach solution into mole tunnels, using water hoses to flood tunnels and drown moles inside, attaching hoses to the exhausts of internal combustion engines are among the methods used to control the moles. Poisons, traps and other hazardous substances may be found by pets or small children, and potentially cause great harm to them.
There is a need for a device that will halt moles' tunneling activity and prevent or interfere with further burrowing activity in an area, without presenting highly dangerous materials to a lawn.